


If thine eye offends thee

by Katarik



Category: Firefly, Serenity (2005)
Genre: Gen, POV Character of Color, POV Male Character, Present Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-11
Updated: 2011-05-11
Packaged: 2017-10-19 06:09:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/197792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katarik/pseuds/Katarik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Book doesn't particularly want to leave, which is why he needs to</p>
            </blockquote>





	If thine eye offends thee

**Author's Note:**

> The title is derived from Mark's Gospel, chapter nine, verse forty-three. This story is set between Serenity and Firefly, referencing the canon of the Serenity prequel comic.

His knuckles are a trifle sore. There is no real damage, no need to go to the infirmary or to treat them himself.

The damage is to his soul, not to his hands. The captain had been right, and punching the man had only proven him more right.

Book can't stay here.

He'd grown fond of Serenity, as well as the people aboard her. He dislikes who he is growing to be. Striking a man solely in anger... that is not who he is.

He had given up a great deal to be what he is now. He likes who he is now. Sacrifices, to keep himself himself, are necessary. He will go.

He can't leave without saying goodbye. These people have become family. Brothers, sisters.

He goes first to the captain, coming to the galley for a drink and deciding he might as well finish when he sees the man standing there. "Am I interrupting something, Captain? Not that I know what that would be, you standing here alone in the middle of the night."

"We're in space, shepherd. It's always the middle of the night. What's on your mind?"

"I'm leaving the ship. Don't know where for just yet, but it's time for me to move on. Thought you should be the first to know."

Reynolds' voice is even. "Look, shepherd, I'll make this plain... it don't matter to me that you hit me."

He knows. "Which is exactly why I need to be away from you. Because sooner or later, it won't matter to me, either." And then he goes.

The next day, he tells Kaylee of a trader he knows who specializes in fruits, and who tends to have strawberries in stock.

Simon comes to him with a small package of scavenged-together antibiotics and a month's worth of supplement. Book knows better than to refuse a doctor in a mood, and so he accepts, bows with all the Core courtesy he still has in him.

He ends up spending the evening with the young man, discussing some of the more esoteric ways of healing the damage stubborn-minded men in space somehow find themselves attracting. Simon takes notes. It is comforting, thinking that something of Book will perhaps save a life along the way.

He hands Jayne a piece of paper with contact information for every shepherd Book could find -- almost all there are in Alliance space -- and a guarantee that someone will say the words over Jayne's body.

He discusses religion with Zoe for the last time, as she cleans her guns: she does not agree with him, and never has, but it has been pleasant to debate. Discuss. Learn. On both sides, he hopes. The hug is a surprise, muscled arms squeezing him tightly. He hugs her back, and she gives him a speculative look at the strength of his own grip. But she doesn't ask.

It surprises Book that his farewell with Wash is, in the end, very quiet. They watch the stars, and Wash flies, and when Book leaves there is a dinosaur tucked inside his clothes. He still isn't sure how he'd wound up promising that wherever he went, he would name at least one section of it 'This Land'.

He does not leave River his Bible, but he does give her an old prayer book. She seems to enjoy the flow of the language, and she promises not to attempt to fix it. Then she makes him stand there for ten minutes while she quickly recites a few of the logical fallacies in the rites.

He sits in silence with Inara, sipping tea comfortably in the space she has set aside and made for herself, and she places a hand on his shoulder with a quiet smile as he stands to leave her shuttle.

In three days, he is dropped off at a place known as Haven. He has never come here before. It's a quiet enough place, and Kaylee gives him a last hug before he goes.

Here, perhaps, he will find the peace he had thought he had before he went to visit the stars. If he does not, at the very least he might be useful.


End file.
